[Astounding News by Express, via Norfolk! --- The Atlantic crossed in Three Days! Signal Triumph of
Mr. Monck Mason's Flying Machine! --- Arrival at Sullivan's Island, near Charlestown, S.C., of Mr.
Mason, Mr. Robert Holland, Mr. Henson, Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, and four others, in the Steering Balloon,
"Victoria," after a passage of Seventy-five Hours from Land to Land! Full Particulars of the Voyage!
The subjoined jeu d'esprit with the preceding heading in magnificent capitals, well interspersed with
notes of admiration, was originally published, as matter of fact, in the "New York Sun," a daily newspaper,
and therein fully subserved the purpose of creating indigestible aliment for the quidnuncs during the few
hours intervening between a couple of the Charleston mails. The rush for the "sole paper which had the
news," was something beyond even the prodigious ; and, in fact, if (as some assert) the "Victoria" did not
absolutely accomplish the voyage recorded, it will be difficult to assign a reason why she should not have
accomplished it.]
THE great problem is at length solved! The air, as well as the earth and the ocean, has
been subdued by science, and will become a common and convenient highway for
mankind. The Atlantic has been actually crossed in a Balloon! and this too without
difficulty --- without any great apparent danger --- with thorough control of the machine -
-- and in the inconceivably brief period of seventy-five hours from shore to shore! By the
energy of an agent at Charleston, S.C., we are enabled to be the first to furnish the public
with a detailed account of this most extraordinary voyage, which was performed between
Saturday, the 6th instant, at 11, A.M., and 2, P.M., on Tuesday, the 9th instant, by Sir
Everard Bringhurst; Mr. Osborne, a nephew of Lord Bentinck's; Mr. Monck Mason and
Mr. Robert Holland, the well-known aeronauts; Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, author of "Jack
Sheppard," etc.; and Mr. Henson, the projector of the late unsuccessful flying machine --
- with two seamen from Woolwich --- in all, eight persons. The particulars furnished
below may be relied on as authentic and accurate in every respect, as, with a slight
exception, they are copied verbatim from the joint diaries of Mr. Monck Mason and Mr.
Harrison Ainsworth, to whose politeness our agent is also indebted for much verbal
information respecting the balloon itself, its construction, and other matters of interest.
The only alteration in the MS. received, has been made for the purpose of throwing the
hurried account of our agent, Mr. Forsyth, into a connected and intelligible form.
Two very decided failures, of late --- those of Mr. Henson and Sir George Cayley ---
had much weakened the public interest in the subject of aerial navigation. Mr. Henson's
scheme (which at first was considered very feasible even by men of science) was founded
upon the principle of an inclined plane, started from an eminence by an extrinsic force,
applied and continued by the revolution of impinging vanes, in form and number
resembling the vanes of a windmill. But, in all the experiments made with models at the
Adelaide Gallery, it was found that the operation of these fans not only did not propel the
machine, but actually impeded its flight. The only propelling force it ever exhibited, was
the mere impetus acquired from the descent of the inclined plane; and this impetus
carried the machine farther when the vanes were at rest, than when they were in motion --
- a fact which sufficiently demonstrates their inutility; and in the absence of the
